The Business Travel Association (BTA) is calling for an overhaul of the UK’s rail system with a new whitepaper, released today, that highlights business traveller needs and the “urgent” reform required to improve passenger services.
The report underlines traveller frustrations such as train cleanliness, service delays and complicated ticketing and calls for the establishment of a Board of Passenger Champions with dedicated task and reform groups “to push for rapid, practical change”.
This includes work groups focused on the business traveller ‘work from train/mobile office’ offer, recommendations for new ‘comfort, catering and cleanliness’ standards and “an information revolution for passengers” that includes sharing Green Travel Pledge data on carbon emissions per journey.
“We recognise the importance of prioritising passengers in our efforts to transform the rail industry,” said BTA chief executive officer, Clive Wratten.
“By putting passengers first and implementing innovative solutions, we can create a rail system that is efficient, comfortable, and accessible to all,” he said, adding the association is “working closely” with Rail Delivery Group and Great British Railways to ensure the voice of business travellers is heard.
As well as passenger champions to encourage customer feedback, the whitepaper strongly advises the need to clean-up ‘carriage grot spots’ such as dirty tables, and improve wifi connectivity beyond the inter-city network in order to create a comfortable working environment for business travellers.
Transparency around service delays is another issue raised in the report. The BTA advised railway companies “must transparently integrate customer experience reports from third parties, such as travel management companies, into their information systems if they are to deliver the seamless service demanded by business travellers”.
The association also suggests ubiquitous ticket inspectors should become ‘service enhancement team members’ and ticketing systems be simplified. “This work should not wait for the structural reform of [the] rail network. Urgent reform is needed,” the association said in the report.
Read the whitepaper here.